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A Day in the Life of a Day Laborer

Stephen Franklin In These Times
He waits along with more than 100,000 others who gather daily on dozens of street corners across the United States, according to figures from 2006. It is a world, where workers are often cheated out of their wages, injured on the job and then left without medical care, according to a 2006 survey. Where workers who complain often suffer retaliation by employers who fire them, suspend them, or threaten to call immigration officials.

In Its First Season, The Handmaid’s Tale’s Greatest Failing Is How It Handles Race

Angelica Jade Bastién New York Magazine
How can you attempt to craft a political, artistically rich narrative that trades in the real-life experiences of black and brown women, while ignoring them and the ways sexism intersects with racism? The bodies and histories of black and brown women prove to be useful templates for shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, but our actual voices aren’t.

Cab Drivers Union Says Chicago Taxi Industry Is Nearing Collapse

Jeff Schuhrke In These Times
The union stresses that the decline of the taxi industry is a loss for the broader public. Unlike most rideshare vehicles, taxis serve people without bank accounts by accepting cash, and they also have more stringent requirements on providing access to people with disabilities.

Legislators’ vote sends Fair Share Amendment to 2018 ballot

MTA Massachusetts Teachers Association
“It’s time to ask millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share — the same share as the rest of us — to make those investments and generate equitable economic growth across Massachusetts.”

Coalition Politics and the Fight for Socialism

Joseph M. Schwartz Democratic Socialists of America
We have to build our organization and not just show up for rallies. DSA will have to “walk on two legs,” sustaining mass opposition to the Trump administration and its red-state equivalents while building social movements for economic, gender, and racial justice that can spur electoral challenges to pro-corporate Democratic incumbents.

Summing Up the Summit

Ethan Young Portside
While the politics concentrated on issues rather than identity approaches, it was noteworthy, if not necessarily important in terms of political direction, that women and people of color taken together outnumbered white guys. This was due in part to the heavy involvement of organized nurses, and to the conveners' efforts to ensure diversity. Anyone expecting a gaggle of young, arrogant Bernie Bros would be in for a surprise.

Unable to Afford Decent Housing? Welcome to the Club

Ijeoma Oluo The Guardian
Low-income people have been dealing with the U.S. housing crisis for decades; now the problem is working its way up the income ladder. Many who thought themselves comfortably ensconced in the so-called middle class are now confronting the prohibitive cost of housing. Decent housing is out of the reach of so many. And we need comprehensive housing reform, real living wages, and a reinvestment in the social safety net because it has been a crisis for so very long.

Friday Nite Videos | June 16, 2017

Portside
How Does Money Laundering Work? Woody Guthrie -- I Ain't Got No Home/Old Man Trump. What's in the GOP's Mysterious Health Care Bill? Lynching in America: “Uprooted” Trailer. Australian Prime Minister Does Donald Trump Impression.